1998 Rivendell Birthday cake by Nancy Milliman, 
with dark, milk & white chocolate leaves.
photo by David Lenander, used by permission
(recipe to follow!)
Mark Heiman found the ring!  

Here are some photos from Rivendell's 1997 & 2002 parties.
From 2005: http://homepage.mac.com/david_lenander/Fantasy_and_SF/PhotoAlbum20.html

Happy Birthday, Bilbo & Frodo!

 

Illustration by Bonnie (Bergstrom) Callahan, used by permission

originally appeared in Mythprint, the Monthly Bulletin of the Mythopoeic Society

For several years, The American Tolkien Society, the American Hobbit Association and other groups have promoted celebrating the Hobbits' Birthday Party on or about September 20. The Mythopoeic Society used to do this in southern California in the late sixties, and most recently, last fall. I'd like to list parties here, on this page. Bonnie Callahan has agreed to have her artwork used by Mythopoeic Society groups in advertising/promoting their Parties. I'm sure that she'd be willing to let any similar Tolkien fan or scholarly group make similar use (please, no profiteering, even for charities, without permission from Bonnie--also, no political or exclusory hidden agendae, please!). I'm not about to post Bonnie's address here, so contact me if you'd like something forwarded. If you're using this on a poster or invitation, please send me a copy (or even 2 copies, one to keep for my files) to forward to Bonnie. And I'll be happy to list your event here, if you like. d-lena@tc.umn.edu

 

If you have other ideas to share, or artwork to make available for similar use, let me know!

I received a note from a Charlie Sweeney about his annual Tolkien-inspired birthday revels. Not exactly what this page is about, but obviously, related! His web-site is http://www.orbus.com/

2006 Events:

Sept. 23 [MN]: The Rivendell Group in St.Paul-Minneapolis, MN, will be partying. See pictures from last year:
http://homepage.mac.com/david_lenander/Fantasy_and_SF/PhotoAlbum20.html

2005 Events:

2004 Events:

2003 Events:

2002 Events:

2000 Events:

1999 Events:

1998 Events:

1998 PARTY REPORTS:

KNOSSOS CELEBRATES BAGGINS BIRTHDAY!

At its regular meeting on Friday, September 18, 1998, Knossos included a celebration of the birthday of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. In addition to the usual snacks of cookies, chips, pretzels, and whatever other conventional goodies members provide, we were treated to mince pies, cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, salad and chicken. Mimi Stevens had baked and decorated a poppy-seed cake with a scene showing the door to Bilbo's house and the message "Happy Birthday Bilbo and Frodo!" Baked into the cake was a ring, which was found by Cary Hoagland. Charles Butler passed around a card for Mr. Frodo Baggins of Washington, DC, who unfortunately was not able to be with us. We hope to make this an annual event. Maybe next year Frodo will be in town! --Mimi Stevens. (Used by permission).

Here' s a contribution, already! David is moderator for Coinherence.

From: David Davis <ddavis@copyright.com> Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 09:52:01 -0400

Subject: RE: new Bilbo's Birthday Party web-page

Sounds like fun. We did it one year, and each guest brought a mathom. Examples:

Cheers!

 

Here's another contribution, about a 1997 private party in Seattle, that might lead to a more public one, 1998:

* it will be a small party in someone's apartment--all people we know, but we are very interested in finding others and doing this on a larger scale next year. As far as we know there are no Tolkien groups in Seattle.

* I'll send you a copy of our invitation. Our party is going to be rather low-key, tea and cake, general discussion, a few songs, group reading of at least one poem, some riddles (we thought we would make up some riddles with no answers and see how long it takes people to catch on [oops, I hope they don't read this here before the party!]) and some toasts.

*As we are expecting some 10 people at our party I thought that might be a good place to start. We were considering beginning with a kind of "guest book/album" that would invite people to share various impressions of Middle-earth (who is your favorite dwarf?). It occurred to me that we might expand that idea into a questionnaire to determine interests (Tolkien, discussion group, SF, CSL, linguistics...).

I wondered if such questionnaire has already been developed? If not, perhaps you would be willing to look at ours when we finish and see if you can make any suggestions.

* Report as of 10/7/97:

The birthday party came off very well, though it was not as well attended as we had hoped. We had copies of the Mythopoeic Society membership form available and several people took them. The riddles went over very well and people were far more gracious than Bilbo or Gollum would have been when we explained there were no right answers.

Here are two you may use if you want:

Troll with no bone;

ring with no stone.

Silence is the darkness

which makes no moan.

 

Wingless flies,

voiceless cries;

Ever desires,

never expires.

 

Also, what constellation did the Hobbits call the Teapot and why should you never eat lembas on horseback?

Ideas for the Khazad-dûm party in the SF Bay area, 1998:

*Sunday, September 20, 1998: Arrive at 1:00pm; Lunch/dinner served at 2:00pm*

CELEBRATION: Bilbo's and Frodo's Birthday Party

With food from THE HOBBIT and THE LORD OF THE RINGS

Our Host will supply:

Sushi appetizers (fissssh, my precious)

Leg of lamb (but not hobbit)

Mushrooms and bacon

Chocolate birthday cake not canonical, but I feel sure the hobbits would approve)

 

Everyone is asked to bring something to eat (or drink) mentioned in THE HOBBIT or THE LORD OF THE RINGS. This could include: chicken, rabbit, apples, potatoes, eggs, cheese, bread, pork pie, mince pie, seed cake,vnuts, dried fruit, strawberries, blackberries, plums, ale, beer, porter, tea, coffee, red wine, and goodness knows what else. If you have the recipes for cram and lembas, bring them along.

 

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